Refugee Crisis in Europe

Europe may offer a safe haven on the closest contiguous land mass to the troubled regions of Africa and the Middle East. But does that geography burden Europe with exclusive responsibility for what you call the “human tsunami”?

The United States had a role in the events leading up to this crisis; shouldn’t we do more to help, before hectoring Europe to reform its failed asylum policies?

America has vast regions of thin population, while Europe is already densely populated. We Americans need to remember our own humble origins as a nation of immigrants and welcome our fair share of these “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

PAUL J. CORCORAN

Greenbrae, Calif.

To the Editor:

It is cruelly ironic that Hungary, which had been in the forefront in dismantling the barriers of the Iron Curtain, is now building a fence the length of its border with Serbia against people who have endured dreadful risks in striving for a better life.